Customer Reviews

Inhuman Beings

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The author of Top Dog - "Wall Street" meets "The Lord of the Rings" - this time blends film noir with an alien conspiracy theory. Again, he spices things up with a flashy manipulation of sarcasm. Goodwin Armstrong is a typical ex-cop/gumshoe, down on his luck. Just when he thought things could any worse, a survivor of a brutal divorce, Security Concerns, a "Private-Eyes-R-Us," begins to kill his business. His financial situation forces him to take on a case involving a psychic, Princess Dulay. She believes that aliens have invaded, and are taking over people in the San Francisco are. Also, they are killing psychics because they can sense the aliens' presence. Armstrong takes on the case, and through a long and painful process becomes a believer and fighter for the cause.

Carroll manages to take many elements and genres and skillfully blends them into an entertaining plot. Driving his tale is some strong and well-developed characters. Carroll's narrative has the traditional feel of a quest, but with modern dressings. His real strength lies in his ability to create substantial, believable characters that a reader can sink his teeth into. The story elements are not anything new, but he plays them off each other in a clever and invigorating style. Grounding his characters in reality allows his to take the reader deeper into reality. He structures the tale so that it unfolds as memories from Armstrong, whom they are holding in a government type facility. This device allows him to create mystery and build suspense. The result is a fast and fulfilling read.

Jerry Jay Carroll is the reining master of recombinative fiction, a refreshing voice. He not only makes everything old new again, but knows how to plot, develop characters and heat things up. INHUMAN BEINGS is what "The X-Files" should be, with a little "Dr. Strangelove" thrown in for good measure. Hey, somebody should get this guy to write for television.

Carroll has a beautiful writing style. His characters are real, his dialogue is convincing and he knows how to keep you interested. I particularly enjoyed his sense of humor and his appreciation for the absurd. Some examples: "The bold scarf tied under his chin represented a rival theory of art"; ""Gloria had a tongue rough enough to sand floors"; "I told lawyers Mulhenny couldn't find his ass if he grew an extra hand back there"; "Feelings are important. Mr. Rogers says so"; "I feel like I've been here long enough for continents to form"; and "Anarchists don't pay parking tickets." (The trick to writing great metaphors is to not sound pretentious. Carroll has real style!) I can't recommend this book enough to science fiction fans who enjoy a good story and great writing.

Detective novels are nothing new, and neither are invaders from beyond stories, but you don't get many crossbreeds of the two outside of the hardcore futuristic sci-fi realm. In this regard, Inhuman Beings is an enjoyable treat.

Carroll's novel is tightly written, short and sweet the way detective novels should be. He doesn't skimp on the characters or back story, just the excessive pages of prose some authors veer off in to explain it.

It may seem unusual to complain about getting more than you asked for, but that is my major problem with the novel. The book description promises a lone detective suddenly involved in a subversive alien invasion, and Carroll delivers the goods right away, keeping a steady pace and developing the dangers at a quick and steady pace. However, the third part of the book changes gears with the involvement of government officials that eventually buy into the main character's claims of an alien attack, and a story of a lone man against insurmountable odds becomes a low-budget retelling of Independence Day or Invaders from Mars. It isn't exactly a bad change, but it was the former story I read the book for, not the latter.

Also, as good as the book is on keeping the reader interested in the main character, this is mainly due to the pace and tension his lone crusader status affords him. As soon as he becomes part of an underground force battling the aliens, the tone and feeling of the book is lost, along with a great deal of the tension.

In short, I enjoyed the book that I first picked up to read, but it wasn't the same book I eventually put down.

Jerry Jay Carroll's "Inhuman Beings" is a nicely written and highly entertaining novel that moves swiftly from start to finish, despite the fact that the plot is very familiar. It's your basic down and out hero encounters aliens "body snatching" human beings and taking them over as part of a large scale invasion of the planet. I particularly enjoyed the early and middle stages of this novel but was somewhat disappointed with the late stages, as in many ways it degenerated into an "Independence Day"-like finale. But it's lots of fun and if you enjoy this sort of storyline it's worth reading. Certainly better books with basically identical themes are Jack Finney's classic "Body Snatchers" (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) or Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters". Or, if you're looking for a horror twist where a down and out P.I. encounters demons and satanic forces (instead of aliens), William Hjortsberg's "Falling Angel" (the novel on which the film "Angel Heart" was based), or Greg F. Gifune's "Drago Descending" are also terrific reads. Overall, Carroll's "Inhuman Beings" is a fine novel and is certainly worth reading, but if you're looking for the definitive novel of this kind, read Jack Finney's "Body Snatchers" first.

i don't know carroll or "top dog" so I'm coming at this from the sf side, and I was pleasantly surprised. It's got a Heinlein feel to it, ca. Puppet Masters.

the premise of 'inhuman beings' in this city is amusing-or was this a mislabled non-fiction book? i think i have seen some of these people around my neighborhood. the author wrote quite realistic dialogue while showing a clever use of language. his use of places and landmarks in the bay area was in keeping with the story-no golden gate bridge references thrown into the storyline just so the reader could have a city tour. waitng for the next book.

(Editor: I wrote an earlier review before I read your advisory. Here is another try.) The story line is rather basic, the ending a little too sweet. But I was swept along by Carroll's crisp writing style. Situation, character, action, and implications are conveyed in a free flow of short, simple sentences. As a native, I feel his settings in San Francisco and Northern California are right on. His main character is alien to my experience. But he rang true and I came to care about his frantic kill-or-be-killed crusade.

A delightful, violent romp through national disaster. Carroll's svelte prose flows past death and destruction as his detective progagonist comes to grips with unknowable alien conquistadors and works his way around their superior intellect and seemingly impenetrable defenses. Friends become foes in the wink of an eye. The ending is too tidy, but the devastastation that precedes it is awesome. Is it too much for film? I like Carroll's crisp, spot-on portrayals of politicians, media, and the security community. "Inhuman Beings" is particularly pleasant for a Northern Californian. It reels you through a gallaxy of familiar and off-beat venues.

I picked up a copy of "Inhuman Beings" at a used book store after reading the back cover description. I was expecting a paranoid, gritty, detective story with paranormal tendencies. Instead, it turned out to be a third-rate science fiction / detective story that overused every cliché attached to the genres. I won't bore you with a plot summary, but I will tell you why this book didn't work. The main character is two dimensional and predictable. The plot is thin and full of holes. Clichés run from "the down on his luck detective" to "the all-American, gun wielding president" to "the kindly old man who sacrifices himself for the greater good". The book is mainly dialog driven which gets annoying and scenes jump around faster than a music video. There is nothing original about the dialog and the story (which was stripped straight out of "Invaders of the Body Snatchers") is unrealistic, patronizing, and immature (ex: the main protagonist is given free decision making over military actions because he knew of the "alien menace" first). The author makes excuses for his character's shortcomings through first-person narrative which leads the reader to believe he knew from the start this was a bad venture. I normally don't write bad reviews, but it was the only way I could feel satisfied for the part of my life wasted by reading this. For good hard-boiled sci-fi stories, do yourself a favor and check out some Philip K. Dick or 1940s-60s Sci-Fi short story collections.

(This review contains spoilers.)

A fun, easy-to-read book with a likeable protagonist that revisits the old story of the silent invasion of alien beings, popularized by Heinlein's Puppet Masters, by Finney and Invasion of the Body-Snatchers, and by a host of films (Arrival, Faculty etc.).

What distinguishes this book is its careful, sometimes mordant, description of San Francisco in the late eighties or early nineties (the book was published in 1998, but the description of San Francisco makes it seem more like it took place in the late eighties - there are a lot of pay-phones for example). Overall, the characterization of the minor characters is deft, to the point and convincing: the aging hippy, the confused ex-wife and her irate lawyer, the suspicious seedy inn-keeper, the matron who looks like women who sit on museum boards, and many others.

The narrative structure is unusual, typically with double flashbacks. The novel begins with protagonist in solitary, he reminisces about his prior life and what brought him there, and that character reminisces about his own previous experiences. It all comes together nicely at the end.

Sentences are short, declarative, about ten words each. Story is told in the first-person and, except for some profanity, the diction reminds me of some children's books. But the imagery and pacing are exemplary, the book is very hard to put down fun and pleasant to read.

There were only two problems with the book in my opinion.

First, the conclusion, the last 40 pages or so, seems a bit hackneyed and lacked the verisimulitude and believability of the first part of the book. It came across as cinematic, rather then literary, to me.

Second, through no fault of the author's, some of his plot devices have been heavily popularized by movies released after the book. Much of the surveillance methods, like the moving security cameras and the way in which the aliens track and respond, is similar to Eagle Eye, for example (which of course was released long after the book). The conclusion obviously is reminiscent of Armageddon, and the careful reader thus knows the finale sooner than would have been the case when the draft was written.

For all that, the book is a pleasure to read because of its deft, careful construction; its entertaining characters; and its delightful observations of the Bay Area.